A CDE Definition
long scale
The system used in many European countries for numbers greater than one million. In the long scale, a billion is a million millions rather than a thousand millions, which is the "short scale. Often called the British numbering system, the long scale was used in the U.K. until the mid-1970s, and numbers in older British documents are in long scale. See space/time and binary values.
Short Scale (U.S.)
One billion 1,000,000,000
One trillion 1,000,000,000,000
Long Scale (Europe)
One billion 1,000,000,000,000
One trillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000

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